Into the Sun

Customer Reviews:

Judged unfairly by most..........2007-07-12

This is the first Steven Seagal movie I've ever seen, I bought it at Kmart for 5 dollars on sale. Normally, I wouldn't have bought this movie, but I was in the mood for an action movie (cheesy or otherwise) and for only 5 bucks it seemed like a good buy.
After reading the reviews and watching the movie, I must say that I don't have the buyer's remorse. It wasn't the best action movie I've ever seen, but it's a far cry from being the worst.
Although it was direct to video here in the states, it did show up in theaters abroad, and it's not low budget either. It's filmed rather well, has an okay story, and the acting is good.
While the villans in this movie are all overly cliched Japanesse Mob bosses and henchmen, and it doesn't really fit that Travis Hunter (Steven Seagal) seems to know everything about the Japanesse underworld even though he did grow up in Japan, the movie flows pretty well and (although a little sad) had a good ending.

Maybe it's just because this is the first Steven Seagal movie I've ever seen, so I can't compare it to his other movies, but I liked this movie, and I don't regret buying it. Heck, I can even see myself watching it again...

Now let's talk about the rating...
I usually don't agree with the MPAA's ratings, namely because they're always a bit off in my opinion. Yes, this movie is rated R and that is a proper rating due to the ammount of swearing & violence. However, on the back of the box, it also mentions nudity and sexual situations, which aren't that prevalant... It should've said "brief partial nudity" due to the fact that the only nudity you actually see depicts 2 women swimming topless in an oversized fish tank at a club, some 50 feet away from the camera for about 10 seconds.
Also, there's only one sex scene, and it's down right mild compared to the scenes you'd see in other R rated movies. Honestly, it's about 7 seconds long, showing Hunter and his fiancee kissing each other, then it shows the sun rise outside of their house, them waking up together, then it jumps to another scene.

The violence, while there aren't alot of fight scenes in this movie, is still enough for it to merit an R rating. And the F*** word is spoken many times throughout the movie.

Pros: A good action movie, can be a little corny at times, but still good.
Good acting.
Well coriographed fighting sequences.
Good musical score for the most part.
While the story & villans are slightly generic, you won't find yourself saying, "It's been done."

Cons: Camera has been sped up slightly to make the action appear more exciting, but it doesn't work...
The main bag guy, Kurado, is WAY too overly cliched. A young, arrogant, overly aggressive man, who makes Hunter's job alot easier by killing most of his own men!
Why does hunter know everything about the Japanesse underworld? I'm an Italian-American, and I don't know anything about the American underworld except for what I've seen in the movies...
On the cover, it shows Hunter walking away from an exploding area with a grenade launcher strapped to his back. (neither of which appear in the movie... No explotions, no grenade launcher.)

Overall, I think this movie was judged unfairly by others... Although it's no 5 star blockbuster, this is a decent action movie in my opinion, and worth the cheap price they're asking for it if you're in the mood for an action movie.

Overall rating: 3.8 Stars

Yakuza Duck and Cover.......2007-03-07

I like movies dealing with the Yakuza. This Steven Seagal vehicle is not bad. This is no BLACK RAIN but Seagal's strong silent type with an understanding for most things of Eastern origin, especially martial in nature, seem to work to the film's advantage. Having seen better days or not, this Seagal film is entertaining.

the bad guys get iced.......2006-06-15

Well I like to see a one-man army lay waste a wall-to-wall cast of hoodlums and devastate Japanese restaurant sets (tongs, yakuza, mafia, and terroristas are all good kendo fodder), but this film just gathers together every action flick cliche there ever was and manages to dumb it down from there - the dialog is dire, the humor pancake flat, and there is not enough action to justify getting out of bed for and it is as badly shot as any kung fu hustle I ever saw. get real

He May Not Be Japanese, But He Loves The Food!.......2006-04-17

I must like torture coz I continue to rent Seagal flicks as they come out. The last bunch of direct to video movies he did are seriously lacking. His "classic" films of the late 80s/early 90s were silly of course, but were fun. Now his films are just boring...really boring. I always knew Seagal could make a dumb movie, but not a boring one, let alone a long string of boring ones. Hell, I might just give up at this point. Plus you have to be suspicious of a film directed by someone calling themselves Mink. I'd think if you're gonna be referring to yourself by a single name, you'd better be cool enough to back it up. I don't recall any classic contributions to the film world from Mink, nor do I think we'll ever see any. And I really don't think Into The Sun is gonna make Mink a director to study in film class. Into The Sun has Seagal as a CIA agent living in Japan who's called upon to look into the assassination of a political figure. He finds that there's a new generation of Yakuza who are joining forces with the Chinese Tongs and.....oh, hell, who really cares? When have we ever cared about the plot of a Steven Seagal movie as long as he delivered the goods? Well, this time the plot is still irrelevant and he doesn't deliver the goods. Most of the film he wanders around Japan investigating the case. He talks to all these high profile Japanese figures who all seem to have the upmost respect for him. I don't know why, but it always bugged me when Seagal tries so hard in his films to be Japanese. He goes around speaking Japanese, and seems right at home with all customs and rituals. I've always found this annoying and silly with Seagal, coz I'm sure the Japanese probably hate the guy. Now I know Seagal is the first white guy to establish a martial arts school in Japan, so I know he actually is somewhat of the Real McCoy, but it still annoys me regardless coz it just seems so phony. There are a couple of fight scenes that go by rather quick, and they do look better than some of the fight scenes from his recent films. Some decent swordwork too, but it's just too little too late. Seagal, like usual, is totally sleepwalking through the film, even moreso that usual, but he can still woo the chick at least! Seagal highlights in this one include Steve ramming a guy's head into a soda machine as cans of soda come falling out, and stabbing a guy in the neck with a pair of chopsticks. I hate to sound redundant, but all in all it's boring.

Into the Toilet - absolutely horrible!.......2006-02-28

There's a VERY good reason this movie got released straight to video. It's completely horrible and dated and reminds me of the era in movie-making where all the heros in kung fu/martial arts movies were white men. It just looks really silly now that so many Asian movies are coming to the US and seeing wider releases abroad.

As horrible as this movie was, I couldn't stop watching it. For me, it was an unintended comedy. The idea that Steven Seagal's character is some kind of sword and martial arts expert supercop in Japan, being able to speak Japanese and knowing all the ins and outs of the japanese underworld is preposterous. The action sequences were horribly filmed and edited to make up for the fact that Seagal is something like in his 50's now and moves with the grace of a gorilla after a Thanksgiving dinner. His age really shows and his hair looks completely fake!

I lived near Tokyo for 3 years, so many of the settings in this movie are familiar. A couple of the scenes take place in the famous Tsukiji fish market and smaller neighborhoods around Tokyo. It's amazing to me that the director let himself squander the location. I would've loved to see him make better use of the surroundings. On a linguistic note, Seagal's Japanese, while not terrible, isn't as good as it should. He speaks like an obvious foreigner, but acts like he knows what the hell's going on and everyone else treats him as a natural japanese speaker, as ludicrous as that is. That's not my problem with this film though. It's just ridiculously made, feels really low budget, and really badly directed and written.

Steven Seagal (4 PACK) Out for a Kill, Into the Sun, Half Past Dead, Ticker

Average customer rating:

Steven Seagal (4 PACK) Out for a Kill, Into the Sun, Half Past Dead, Ticker

ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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